theosophistn.
/θiːˈɒsəfɪst/ 1. One who professes or believes in theosophy n. 1.
a. With specific reference to Boehme.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > doctrine > doctrine concerning God or a god > [noun] > theosophy > person > with specific reference to Boehme
theosopher1647
theosophist1656
1656 H. More Enthusiasmus Triumphatus a viij A promiscuous Collection of divers odd Conceits out of severall Theosophists and Chymists.
1656 H. More Enthusiasmus Triumphatus 40 This disease many of our Chymists and several Theosophists, in my judgement, seem very obnoxious to, who dictate their own Conceits and Fancies so magisterially and imperiously, as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty.
1791 W. Enfield Brucker's Hist. Philos. II. ix. iii. 488 The Theosophists..neither contented with the natural light of human reason, nor with the simple doctrines of scripture understood in their literal sense, have recourse to an internal supernatural light, superior to all other illuminations, from which they profess to derive a mysterious and divine philosophy, manifested only to the chosen favourites of heaven.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. ix. 139 How dare I be ashamed of the Teutonic theosophist, Jacob Behmen?
b. In a more general sense.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > doctrine > doctrine concerning God or a god > [noun] > theosophy > person
theosophist1814
theosoph1822
1814 P. B. Shelley Deism in Prose Wks. (1880) II. 77 The God of the rational Theosophist is a vast and wise animal.
1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe III. ii. 128 The principal mystics or theosophists have generally been counted among philosophers.
a1843 R. Southey Doctor (1847) VII. 95 Certain theologians, and certain theosophists, as men who fancy themselves inspired sometimes affect to be called.
1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics (1860) I. i. v. 31 The theosophist is one who gives you a theory of God, or of the works of God, which has not reason, but an inspiration of his own for its basis.
1882 Pall Mall Gaz. 30 Aug. 4 Of late years we have heard and learned a great deal about that interesting Oriental theosophist, the ideal Buddhist.
2. A professor or adherent of theosophy n. 2; a member of the Theosophical Society; name of a magazine, the organ of that society.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > [noun] > theosophy > adherent of
Hermetist1827
theosophist1881
1881 Sat. Rev. 3 Sept. 298/2 The Theosophist is full of translations from the works of ancient ‘theurgists’.
1881 A. P. Sinnett Occult World 37 The natives [of India] were flattered at the attitude towards them taken up by their new ‘European’ friends, as Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were no doubt generally regarded in spite of their American nationality, and showed a shallow eagerness to become Theosophists.
1885 H. S. Olcott Theosophy Pref. 11 We are..the same thing to all men—viz., Theosophists, who believe in the essential identity of all men, race, caste, and creed to the contrary notwithstanding.
1885 H. S. Olcott Theosophy 144 The Theosophist is a man who, whatever be his race, creed, or condition, aspires to reach this height of wisdom and beatitude by self-development.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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